Most businesses that have an online presence want to enhance their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to appear ahead of their competition in search results. There are many different SEO strategies that companies can use to achieve this goal, with a popular method being paid listings. Google AdWords is the most popular pay-per-click advertising program for small businesses. Ads created by your company will be featured on the side bar or before the list of Google results. Seems like a good plan, right? Before you say yes, ask yourself, how often do I click on paid advertisements that I see listed on the side of my browser? Do you think that these kinds of ads really turn your traffic into paying customers? Fortunately, there is a more effective way of enhancing your SEO marketing campaign, and that is through the use of social media!

Social media has a great impact on the ranking of your content. Here are 5 ways you can use social media marketing to ramp up your SEO:

1. Google+. Back in January, Google further integrated Google+ into their social search. Google’s social search basically takes Google+ pages, profiles, and content that has been shared with you on the platform and includes them in your search engine results. People who are in your Google+ circles will have a direct impact on what you see in your search results. What does this mean from a business standpoint? It’s time to build your Google+ network! Growing a fan base on Google+ and sharing content on the platform will help those who have you in Circles to see your company whenever they search for something relevant. Your content may even get you to a first page ranking just because a person has you in one of their circles.

2. Post your blogs to social media sites. If you have a company blog, you need to be sharing it on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. Did you know that once your content gets published on Twitter, it actually gets indexed faster to Google? Publishing an article on your blog is great, but it will be less likely to show up in search results if you don’t share it amongst social sites.

3. Create shareable content and include share buttons. Make sure that the content you create for your business blog serves more of a purpose than to sell your service or product. Useful information, tips and tricks are more likely to be shared than a blog on the prices of your products. Content that has been shared by another is now available to their whole social following through Google’s social search. If you post your content directly to your website, make sure you include share buttons under each of your posts (see the buttons below this post). This will enable your readers to quickly share your article across their social networks with the click of a mouse!

4. Link your name to your content. If you do a Google search, you may notice in the results articles that have been written by various people or companies. Most of the time, these articles have the author’s picture next to them, along with the option to click on “More by (author’s name)”.

This helps to showcase all the articles and content that specific person has created. This can categorize all of your business posts into a single search engine result page. In order to do this, you are going to need to enter the rel=”author” and rel=”me” html coding into your posts. Refer to this guide on how to link your name to your work.

5. Pinterest. Pinterest is now referring more traffic to websites than Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+. Additionally, Google has recently started indexing pins into their search results. If you are not on Pinterest, you are missing out on SEO opportunities for your company. Upload photos or pin items from other sites and be sure to include specific keywords or phrases that will direct people to your profile.

These are just 5 methods of using social media to enhance your SEO marketing campaign. There are tons of other ways to use social media to make your content is searchable and get it featured early in the search engine results page. If you have any other tips or advice on how to enhance SEO through social media, please share with us in the comments below.